Hondafreak,
Here is my review. I put in a 24k unit in July of 2017. I live in socal, typical summer days are 90-95 and relatively dry. It was very hot this summer days hitting 105-110 the hottest I can ever remember here.
Installation
I did this entirely myself, no addtional people holding stuff. I put the Unit on the wall, then ran the Lineset outside. The lineset is very flexible but really hard to get "untwisted" properly. I would make an effort to make the lines extra straight first and make sure you have a large enough "debris" free hole to get to the outside. Its nice the electrical is part of the lineset package so there is no "inside" wiring that happens.
The outside part was easy, except for attaching the lineset. Throw the unit on relatively level ground (I got a fiberglass pad for mine) you are supposed to "bolt" it down, but I did not, I think that is more for hurricane type stuff which we just don't get here. Attaching the lineset is kind of a pain. I needed to make a custom "crows foot wrench" asy you are supposed to torque the big one to 65lbs or so and the other one at like 50. I dont remember the exact number. I took a 1/2 extension, cut it off and welded it to the 12 inch crescent wrench, very close to the head. I then deducted about 17% for the ft poounds as my lever location was different and went until I heard the click on my 1/2 harbor freight wrench. Opened up the refrigerant lines did a quick leak check via water and soap. No leaks. No vacuuming down the system, No soldering/brazing.
The unit works well. It does have a lot of water drip off of the evaporator which I guess is a good thing, so dont have a half baked drain system
Usage:
I uses this primarily 1 day a week 3 times a month. I have it set to 62 pretty much always as I prefer the garage cold. My garage is a 600 sq ft 3rd car garage with 1/2 being insulated by the house and the other 1/2 not being insulated at all besides the stucco siding. When it was 102 outside it was able to keep the garage at a comfortable temp, colder than the house which was at 76. My only "gripe" with it is I feel it can only keep what is in "front" of it cold Stuff to the left and right are not drastically changed by moving the vents. it still mostly blows straight out the front. I use a very simple 12 inch oscillating fan that gets the cold air elsewhere. I really need to insulate my 3rd car garage portion, it does not get that cool over there due to significantly higher head load from the outside. I purposely oversized the unit from the quick manual J calculation I did as I need it to cool off a large area fast. I usually turn it on 1 hr before working then go out there and its nice and comfortable.
As for head I have used it 2 or 3 times for the novelty but it does not get that cold here. But it blows hot air when its 45 or 50 outside so I guess that is good.
I would buy it again, and have recommended to a few of my friends to get the same unit. I think I had it installed in about 2 hours start to finish.
